Success is achieved by those who not only have an intent to succeed, but live intentionally every day to make it a reality. Yeah, yeah, we’ve all been over-dosed on the “just visualize it and it will happen” new age philosophy of manifestation. But, I’m here to shout it out to the rooftops that if you stop at visualization, you will not succeed. Merely sitting in an armchair visualizing your dream as a reality devoid of taking action, just won’t get you where you want to be. You must get up out of that armchair, hold that positive vision in your mind’s eye, head out your front door and live out each day by taking intentional action on everything that you can possibly do to realize your vision.

Wikipedia defines intention as: A mental state that represents a commitment to carrying out an action or actions in the future. Intention involves mental activities such as planning and forethought. My point here, being that, if there is no follow through on your mental commitment to take action, then the chain to success becomes broken.

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live”Dalai Lama

Living intentionally is how you become a master at crafting and attaining the life you desire. If you aren’t intentionally living your life, you are letting life live you, and that won’t get what you want. It’s the difference between being the victor of circumstances or the victim of circumstances. What will you choose?

Here Are the Top 6 Ways to Live Each Day with the Intention to Succeed:

Take Control: Run your day, don’t let the day or others run you. Someone else’s emergency, is not your emergency. Most “emergencies” are not emergencies. Keep calm, use rational judgement in deciding if, and when you need to become involved.

Take Personal Responsibility: Don’t allow yourself to fall into old bad habits. Self-correct immediately if you find yourself slipping. Do not rationalize a slip with deluding yourself by believing: “It’s just one day, nothing bad will happen”.

Don’t Wing it: Have a plan for your day and prepare for that interview, speech, presentation or meeting.

Seize Each Day: Act as if today is the last day you’ll ever have the opportunity to succeed. Don’t take any day for granted. Each day is a precious gift waiting to be received.

Be Fearless: Be bold. Be different. Lead and don’t follow. Live out loud the truth of who you are.

Use Self-Restraint: Avoid engaging in distractions and in taking action on non-essentials, which are those things that do not directly relate to the accomplishment of your daily prioritized action plan.

Life can change in a blink of an eye. I have a saying: “count to one, and your life has changed forever”. Live each day intentionally as if it’s your last day to take action on having the life you aspire to have tomorrow. In so doing, whatever may come tomorrow, you will have developed the habits and character traits of a champion and will succeed no matter what is or isn’t happening in life and the world around you.

In Closing My Shocking Confession: One day I’m prepped and ready to run both the LA and Boston Marathons. Then, BAM, the very next day, I was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. The doctors told me I could not run Boston because being on a plane too far away from a hospital could jeopardize my life. I thought about what they told me. Then, I went on to run both marathons. I was strong, I had prepared, I KNEW within me that I would be ok and was determined not to succumb to fear or doing something that was going to rob me of attaining the goal that I had worked so hard to achieve. The “standard” protocol wasn’t going to become my standard. I intentionally lived each marathon day, and every day thereafter, fearlessly living my truth, pursuing my goals and honoring my belief that you don’t need to follow the “norm” to succeed. I have my finishers medals and I’m alive, well and happy.